Grab CD of concert on your way out

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After decades of artists having their live music and income stolen by bootleggers, the hunted have joined the ranks of the poachers, offering fans the chance to relive their concerts only hours after they end.

Tested on several tours in the past year and very publicly trialled in the May reformation tour of 1980s cult band the Pixies, the use of new technology to record concerts and burn CDs that can be sold to departing concert-goers is going mainstream.

This week the communications and entertainment conglomerate Clear Channel announced it had signed major-label acts such as folk/pop singer Jewel and veteran glam-rock band Kiss to Instant Live, a program making recordings available at venues "roughly five minutes" after the concerts end.

If the figures from the Pixies shows are any indication, between 20 and 50 per cent of fans will buy a live recording of the concert they have just attended.

Using a rival system, Disc Live, the Pixies (never a big drawing act in the league of Kiss or Jewel) sold 16,000 copies of their live gigs in a month-long tour.

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The profit figures already look rosy with some estimates that artists could clear $10 to $15 from each CD sold.

Before internet piracy and downloading, before CDs even, the scourge of the music industry were the bootleggers, shadowy figures who carried recording equipment in deep pockets or who knew someone who knew someone with access to the sound desk at a concert.

Those recordings soon made their way onto records and CDs (and more recently downloadable files) that were sold under the counter, via mail-order or online.

The problem was of course that the publisher, record company and artist (in decreasing order of profit takers) saw none of the money made. Until now.

Acts such as the Who, to play in Australia later this month, already sell CDs directly to fans within a few weeks of each concert.

As of this week no Australian record company, promoter or artist had yet committed to either live disc format. The costs of establishing the technology was cited as one deterrent, the relatively small size of the live market another.

However, industry figures agreed it was merely a matter of when, not if, instant live CDs are available in Australia.